Blackgang Chine and St Catherine's Point

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"An invigorating walk around the island's most southerly point."

Walk directions

From the car park, cross the road and climb steps to a kissing gate. Bear left, signposted towards ‘St Catherine’s Oratory’. Steadily climb up the grassy downland to a kissing gate. Walk up to the old oratory, known locally as ‘the Pepperpot’. Ignore the kissing gate by the trig point just beyond; keeping the fence on your right, continue downhill and bear left to a gate.

Go through the gate and proceed ahead on the broad grassy swathe to Hoy’s Monument. Return for 80yds (73m) and take the bridleway left. Go through the gap and descend steeply through trees and bear left with the main path downhill to a gate. Follow the bridleway left, then at the stables directly ahead bear right along the driveway.

Proceed ahead at a crossing of tracks (Downcourt Manor Farm drive is to the right), heading downhill to a gate by a house (Little Hermitage). Walk alongside the right-hand field edge to a gate and head downhill on a hedged path. At a T-junction, turn right and go through a gate, the path soon emerging into a field.

Keep to the left-hand field edge, beside an overgrown gully, and cross the first stile on the left. Immediately bear right, then take the path ahead, with a gate to the right. Head through the trees, cross a concrete bridge and keep right. Gradually ascend a stony path, which can be very wet in winter, and which bears left to reach a stile, near a thatched cottage on your right.

Bear right through a wide gap into a second field and turn left up the defined path rising up the slope to two stiles in the field corner. Cross the right-hand stile and immediately turn right, heading diagonally uphill across the face of Head Down to a stile. Turn left on a wide path, ignore stiles on either side and proceed to the one at the end of the track.

Turn left, then almost immediately right along a hedged bridleway. Head downhill, the path becoming metalled (Pan Lane) as it enters Niton. At the lane, turn right to enter the churchyard or left and then right for the White Lion. Leave via the lych gate and turn right alongside the A3055.

Take the footpath beside the last house (Tolverne) on the left and climb up steeply through trees to a stile. Walk ahead across grassland to a stile and follow the left-hand field edge to reach a kissing gate.

Turn right along the IOW coastal path, through two kissing gates and emerge onto an open clifftop. Remain on this path near the cliff edge for nearly a mile (1.6km). Turn right onto a tarmac path for the final section to the car park.

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Location

Nearest postcode:

Additional information

Terrain - Field paths, downland tracks, coast path, 8 stiles

Landscape - Rolling downland and farmland, breezy cliff top

Dog friendliness - Keep dogs under control at all times

Parking - Car park above Blackgang Chine

Toilets en route - In Niton opposite the church

Walks in Isle of Wight Dog-friendly walks in Isle of Wight

About the walk

The viewpoint car park high above Blackgang Chine is the ideal starting point for this intriguing ramble around the island’s most southerly point, an area steeped in tales about shipwrecks, smuggling and its three lighthouses. Before you lies the broad sweep of Chale Bay and high upon St... Catherine’s Hill to your right is a curious octagonal tower, known locally as the ‘Pepperpot’. For centuries Chale Bay, in particular the treacherous rocks around Atherfield Ledge, was notorious for shipwrecks and the subsequent looting of desirable cargoes. Violent storms and huge seas drove fully rigged sailing ships crashing against the cliffs; once as many as 14 floundered in the ‘Bay of Death’ on a single night. Your walk begins with a long, steady climb up St Catherine’s Hill to the ‘Pepperpot’ and it is only here that you realise its significance. It’s all that remains of a medieval lighthouse or beacon and is, equally, a monument to the folly of Walter de Godeton. Its story begins with the wreck of a merchant ship, the Ship of the Blessed Mary, at Atherfield Ledge in 1313, while bound for England with a consignment of wine. The sailors escaped and sold the 174 casks of wine to the islanders, one of whom was Walter de Godeton, who took 53 casks. As it belonged to a religious community in Normandy, it was considered an offence to receive the smuggled wine. Following a long trial, de Godeton was fined heavily and as an act of penance was ordered to build a beacon and oratory on the site of an earlier hermitage, so that a priest could tend the light and say prayers for those lost at sea. The oratory has long since disappeared, but the lighthouse, operational until 1638, survives as Britain’s only medieval lighthouse. Close by is another partially built lighthouse known as the ‘Salt Pot’. Begun in 1785 to rekindle the St Catherine’s light, the project was abandoned due to cost and the realisation that its warning light would rarely be visible due to fog. It was not until the tragic loss of the Clarendon in 1836 that the present lighthouse at St Catherine’s Point was built. At the end of the St Catherine’s Down stands Hoy’s Monument, a 72ft (22m) high column commemorating the visit of a Russian tzar in 1814. The views from the ridge are spectacular and the walk culminates above the dramatic undercliff of St Catherine’s Point.

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Been on this walk?

Send us photos or a comment about this route. Or recommend a route of your own.

Find out more

Walking in Safety

Read our tips to look after yourself and the environment when following this walk.

Learn more

Get an AA guide

Explore our range of ‘50 Walks in’ guides - they’re the ideal companion for a ramble.

Learn more

About the area

Small and intimate – at just 23 miles by 13 miles, the Isle of Wight is a popular holiday destination; with its mild climate, long hours of sunshine and colourful architecture, it has something of a continental flavour. Visitors can walk along the island’s varied coastline using the well-established Coast Path or step back in time to explore the island’s history at some of the forts and castles.